It is known in the prior art to manufacture portions of closure assemblies such as windows from fiberglass pultrusions.
Canadian Patent 1,216,722 assigned to Dynamit Nobel Ag of the Federal Republic of Germany, teaches a method of forming hollow profiles by extruding glass fibre-reinforced polyvinyl chloride wherein a synthetic resin shell is formed which surrounds at least a part of the core as best seen in relation to FIGS. 1 and 2 of this patent. However a core is required for this structure unlike the present subject matter of the instant application.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,951 assigned to Therma-Tru Corporation, Toledo, Ohio, teaches an improved frame assembly for windows, doors and the like having a first and second skin, having internal support ribs wherein an insert is provided in between the skins as illustrated best in FIG. 3 which provides a solid surface for attaching hinges, drilling holes for door or window handles and lock assemblies and the like. The skin is manufactured from fiberglass reinforced polyester because of the thermal advantages of the qualities of fiberglass. The reinforcing portion extends throughout the frame between the skin portions as illustrated in the above figure. Again the instant invention does not contain such an internal portion.
Great Britain Patent Application 2,148,963 provides a pultruded glass reinforced web which acts as a thermal insulation within aluminum extrusions.
European Patent Application 0 022,436 to Gamp describes as best understood by the Applicant members of glass fibre reinforced plastic material having dovetail corner joints in a window assembly. Nowhere within this reference is taught the mounting of hardware as the substance of the application only relates to the dovetail corner joints.
West German Offenlegungsschrift 2,904,295 to Maunz describes a compound window made from plastics and having a wing of metal. The plastic window may be reinforced with fiberglass.
The following patents describe in detail among others the pultruding technique known in the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,262 to Imperial Chemical Industries, U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,338 to Mitsubishi Petrochemical Company Limited, U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,737 to Celanese Corporation, U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,884 to Imperial Chemical Industries, Canadian Pat. No. 1,011,612 to Ube-Nitto Kasei Co., Ltd., of Japan, Canadian Pat. No. 945,713 to Glastrusions, Inc., of California, Canadian Pat. No. 920,310 to The English Electric Company Limited, Canadian Pat. No. 869,604 to Glastrusions, Inc.of California, U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,065 to Owens-Corning Fiberglass and U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,540 by Davies.
Referring now to U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,065 there is provided a core material of a shaped glass fiber board impregnated with resin in the outer surface portion which is cured. The structure is best observed in relation to FIG. 3. A considerable amount of fiberglass therefore is used in order to prepare such framing sections, it being cost prohibitive and difficult to justify forming windows by such framing sections. Nowhere within the 4,640,065 Patent is there taught the manufacture of thin walled pultrusions preferably in the range of twenty five thousandths of an inch to two hundred and twenty five thousandths of an inch from which framing sections may be manufactured by known pultrusion techniques.
Referring now to U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,540, nowhere within this patent is there taught the use of thin walled pultrusions for anything more than a spacing member as clearly seen in relation to FIGS. 1 and 2.
The instant invention may be manufactured by any known pultrusion techniques and methods of those described in the prior art discussed above, the methods of which are herein incorporated by reference. In this respect, Applicant's structure may be formed by any of the above pultrusion techniques depending on the end product desired.
It is known within the prior art to reinforce hollow framing sections. Great Britain Pat. Specification 1,522,475 describes a window frame of plastic having a thickness of between 3 1/2 to 6 mm of plastic. It is necessary to provide internal continuous reinforcing webs of plastic material to provide a frame of adequate strength. When considering the cost of plastic to the higher cost of wooden frames it is possible to reduce the thickness of the plastic while maintaining the strength by providing continuous metal strengthening portions of any suitable metal alloy or by concrete members. Thus the elongate plastic members are assembled to form a frame work and metal or reinforced concrete members are externally affixed to the framework, the metal or reinforcing concrete members serving to strengthen the hollow plastic members. This invention is best observed in relation to the figures illustrated at FIG. 2. However, the forming of a plastic window does not have the thermal properties known to be inherit in fiberglass. Thus, the thermal expansion of the plastic will be significantly different from the concrete or the window pane and it is impossible that the window may experience fogging problems in cold weather. Applicant's structure however being made from fiberglass having all of the known qualities of fiberglass will tend to have improved response to thermal expansion.
Another example of reinforcing portions found within the prior art are found in West German Pat. 2,818,696 to Frei, and West German 3,132,938 to Brickenstein. Another reference, European Pat. 156,108, shows the use of trapezoidal metal reinforcing profiles inserted within cavities. However, the reinforcing profiles are not used for mounting hardware thereto.
Within the prior art there also exists a number of publications and patents which teach reinforcing of frame portions. These teachings are exemplified by West German Offenlegungsschrift 2,545,209 to Bruder which describes a reinforcing angle piece for the corner of window or glass panes, West German Offenlegungsschrift 3,040,625 which describes a stiffened hollow plastic window frame by a corner member, West German Offenlegungsschrift 2,730,633 to Schock which teaches the angle portion to square the corners of a miter joint, West German Offenlegungsschrift 2,300,281 to Kopke which describes a corner reinforcement for a plastic profile door or window frames and U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,274 which describes a corner joint for a miter cut hollow profile member of plastic.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,662,110, 4,726,145 and 4,691,474 to Rokicki describe my sliding door assembly wherein are provided cam portions as best seen in FIGS. 5 and 6 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,145, the cam portions being connected together by a cable portion which is fastened together by a turn buckle type arrangement. By fastening the cable together by a turn buckle arrangement it has resulted in a very time consuming assembly process for the sliding door assembly. Further the joint so formed has proven to fail in time and slip resulting in the cams going out of coincident motion. This specification further teaches an improvement for joining cable systems and specifically for joining the cables together within the instant invention. The teachings of the above-mentioned patents to Rokicki are hereby incorporated by a reference in relation to the structure of the sliding door assembly.
Nowhere within the prior art is there taught a thin walled pultrusion manufactured from fiberglass which forms a framing section for a closure member, preferably the thin wall pultrusion having a thickness of between twenty five to two hundred and twenty five thousandths of an inch and having reinforcing portions disposed within the channels, flanges, or grooves formed with the pultrusion to allow for the mounting of hardware on the framing sections when formed into closure assemblies or to allow the mounting of the closure assembly within an opening.
One of the problems facing commercial success of forming closure assemblies of thin walled pultrusions is the fact that fiberglass is very brittle. Whenever a fastener is inserted in such a pultrusion the glass fibres will crack and shatter around the opening. The prior art indicates that closure assemblies can be formed from fiberglass only when there is a core member such as wood or fiberglass between outer shells of fiberglass.
Fiberglass of course is expensive. By forming thin walled pultrusions of the thickness described above, one would be able to improve the yield in forming framing sections by known pultrusion methods. Further by providing reinforcing portions contained in strategic locations with each pultrusion the formation of a closure assembly allows for the mounting of hardware on the thin walled pultrusion or the mounting of the assembly itself which would not be mountable unless the fiberglass pultrusion were reinforced around the point upon which the hardware will be mounted. For example, the ends of the pultrusion may be moulded with nylon reinforcing portions to ensure that the brittle properties normally associated with fiberglass are not prevalent when mounting the hardware or the frame members to each other. By providing such reinforcing portions such as plastic mouldings proximate the end of the framing section or wherever the hardware may be mounted, considerable savings is realized in forming the thin walled pultrusions which would flake and crack easily if it were not for the reinforcing portions. Reinforcing portions may also be metal portions or any portion convenient to reinforce a thin walled pultrusion of the instant invention. The prior art structures allow for continuous reinforcement throughout the entire length of the framing portions rendering them much less economical.
Supplementary portions for squaring miter framing sections and joining pultrusion sections are also provided with this disclosure which are not found in the prior art in combination with the teachings of the instant invention.
It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide thin walled pultrusions preferably between twenty five and two hundred and twenty five thousandths of an inch in thickness which may be used to form framing members for closure assemblies, when the pultrusions are reinforced proximate their ends and at positions where hardware or the assembly will be mounted.
It is a further object of this invention to provide closure assemblies manufactured from thin walled pultrusion sections as described above having unique portions for bracing and squaring the corners.
It is another object of this invention to provide a closure assembly which is economical to manufacture and which has the recognized thermal properties of fiberglass and the strength thereof.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved joint for cable systems especially those found within sliding door assemblies having cam portions and separate pivots as found in the prior art described above.
Further and other objects of this invention will become apparent to a man skilled in the art when considering the following summary of the invention and the more detailed description of the preferred embodiments illustrated herein.